1/2. Improving quality of life: adjuvant psychological therapy for patients with cancer.The present paper describes a psychological treatment programme--Adjuvant Psychological Therapy (APT)--that has been developed specifically for patients with cancer-related psychosocial disorders. APT is brief (average six sessions), directed at current problems and conducted with individual patients together with their partners or spouses, if possible. Therapy focuses on the personal meaning of cancer to the patient and his or her coping strategies. An outline of APT together with a clinical illustration is given. A randomised trial has demonstrated that APT produces significant improvement in psychological distress and thus in the quality of life of patients with cancer.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = programme (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/2. Stanford 3D hyperthermia treatment planning system. Technical review and clinical summary.In the field of deep regional hyperthermia cancer therapy the Sigma 60 applicator of the BSD-2000 Hyperthermia System is one of the most widely used devices. This device employs four independent sources of radiofrequency electromagnetic energy to heat tumour sites deep within the body. The difficulty in determining the input parameters for the four sources has motivated the development of a computer-based three-dimensional (3D) treatment planning system. The Stanford 3D Hyperthermia Treatment Planning System has been in clinical use at Stanford Medical Center for the past 2 years. It utilizes a patient-specific, three-dimensional computer simulation to determine safe and effective power deposition plans. An optimization programme for the selection of the amplitudes, phases and frequency for the sources has been developed and used in the clinic. Examples of the application of the treatment planning for hyperthermia treatment of pulmonary, pelvic, and mediastinal tumours are presented. methods for quantifying the relative effectiveness of various treatment plans are reviewed.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = programme (Clic here for more details about this article) |